• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2022

Adsorption tower systems based on activated carbon adsorption towers have mainly been employed to reduce the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a major cause of air pollution. However, the activated carbon currently used in these systems has a short lifespan and thus requires frequent replacement. An approach to overcome this shortcoming could be to develop metal oxide photocatalysis-activated carbon composites capable of degrading VOCs by simultaneously utilizing photocatalytic activation and powerful adsorption by activated carbon. TiO₂ has primarily been used as a metal oxide photocatalyst, but it has low economic efficiency due to its high cost. In this study, ZnO particles were synthesized as a photocatalyst due to their relatively low cost. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were deposited on the ZnO surface to compensate for the photocatalytic deactivation that arises from the wide band gap of ZnO. A microfluidic process was used to synthesize ZnO particles and Ag NPs in separate reactors and the solutions were continuously supplied with a pack bed reactor loaded with activated carbon powder. This microfluidic-assisted pack bed reactor efficiently prepared a Ag-ZnO-activated carbon composite for VOC removal. Analysis confirmed that Ag-ZnO photocatalytic particles were successfully deposited on the surface of the activated carbon. Conducting a toluene gasbag test and adsorption breakpoint test demonstrated that the composite had a more efficient removal performance than pure activated carbon. The process proposed in this study efficiently produces photocatalysis-activated carbon composites and may offer the potential for scalable production of VOC removal composites.

• Clean Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.270-278
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• 2017

This study introduces a method to easily fabricate highly monodisperse pectin hydrogel microfibers in a microfluidic device by using partial gelation. The hydrodynamic parameters between the pectin aqueous solution and the calcium ions containing oil solution are precisely controlled to form a stable elongation flow of the pectin aqueous solution, and partial gelation of the pectin aqueous solution is performed by the chelating of the calcium ions at the interface between the two phases. The partially gelled pectin aqueous solution is phase-separated from the oil solution in an aqueous calcium chloride solution outside the microfluidic device and is completely gelled to produce monodisperse pectin hydrogel microfibers. The thickness of the pectin hydrogel microfiber is controlled in a reproducible manner by controlling the volumetric flow rate of the initially injected pectin aqueous solution. The pectin hydrogel microfibers were 200 to 500 micrometers in diameter and had a coefficient of variation below 5% under all thickness conditions, indicating that the pectin hydrogel microfibers produced by partial gelation are highly monodisperse. In addition, biomaterials can be immobilized to the pectin hydrogel microfibers produced by a single process, demonstrating the possibility that our pectin hydrogel microfiber can be used as carriers for biomaterials or tissue engineering.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.1721-1725
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• 2010

This paper reports the fabrication of geometry-controlled carbon microneedles by a backside exposure method and pyrolysis. The SU-8 microneedles are a polymer precursor in a carbonization process, which geometries such as base diameter, spacing, and aspect ratio can be controlled in a photolithography step. Using this fabrication method, highly reproducible carbon microneedles, which have high aspect ratios of more than 10 and very sharp nanotips, can be realized. The quartz surface with carbon microneedles becomes very hydrophilic and its wettability is adjusted by carrying out the silane treatment. In the carbon microneedle array ($3\;{\mu}m{\times}3\;{\mu}m$), the contact angle is extremly enhanced (${\sim}180^{\circ}$); this will be advantageous in developing low-drag microfluidics and labs-on-a-chip as well as in other bio-applications.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.115-123
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• 2021

This study demonstrates a new method for the synthesis of organic-inorganic hybrid particles composed of an inorganic silica shell and organic core particles. The organic core particles are prepared with a uniform size using droplet-based microfluidic technology. In the process of preparing the organic core particles, uniform droplets are generated by independently controlling the flow rates of the dispersed phase containing photocurable resins and the continuous phase. After the generation of droplets in a microfluidic device, the droplets are photo-polymerized as particles by ultraviolet irradiation at the ends of microfluidic channels. The core particle is coated with a nano complex composed of polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH) and phosphate ion (Pi) through strong non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interaction under optimized pH conditions. The polyamine nano complex rapidly induces the condensation reaction of silicic acid through the arranged amine groups of the main chain of PAH. Therefore, this method enabled the preparation of organic-inorganic hybrid particles coated with inorganic silica nanoparticles on the organic core. Finally, we demonstrated the synthesis of organic-inorganic hybrid particles in a short time under ambient and environmentally friendly conditions, and this is applicable to the production of organic-inorganic hybrid particles having various sizes and shapes.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.98-105
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• 2022

In this study, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/graphene oxide (GO)/iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) magnetic microgels were prepared using a microfluidic approach and the dye adsorption capacity of the microgels was confirmed. The adsorption capacity (q_e) of the gels was evaluated by varying the dye concentration, pH, and contact time with the microgels. The dyes used in this work were methylene blue (MB), crystal violet (CV), and malachite green (MG), and microgels showed the highest adsorption capacity (191.1 mg/g) in methylene blue. The microgels exhibited the highest adsorption capacity in the dye aqueous solution at pH 10 due to the presence of atomic nitrogen ions (N⁺) on the dye molecules. The adsorption isotherm studies revealed that the Langmuir isotherm is the best fit isotherm model for the dye adsorption on the microgels, indicative of monolayer adsorption. The kinetic analysis exhibited that the pseudo-second order model fits better than the pseudo-first order model, confirming that the adsorption process is chemisorption. In addition, the magnetic microgels showed good reusability and recovery efficiency. It was confirmed that the adsorption capacity of the gels maintains more than 70% of the initial capacity after 5 times of cycle experiments.